Are you an optimist or a pessimist? (Venue: Caffè Nero)

(Scroll down for topic intro)

THE VENUE: Caffè Nero

It's not quite spring yet so we will continue to meet indoors for the next few weeks.

When we meet indoors, we run the same event in two locations: Caffè Nero and Starbucks, so as to provide capacity for as many people who would like to attend, without overwhelming any one venue. Thus, there will be two events published, and you can choose which one to attend. Please don't sign up for both. This event is for the Nero location.

We meet upstairs at Caffè Nero. An organiser will be present from 10.45. We are not charged for use of the space so it would be good if everyone bought at least one drink.

An attendee limit has been set so as not to overwhelm the venue.

Etiquette
Our discussions are friendly and open. We are a discussion group, not a for-and-against debating society. But it helps if we try to stay on topic. And we should not talk over others, interrupt them, or try to dominate the conversation.

There is often a waiting list for places, so please cancel your attendance as soon as possible if you subsequently find you can't come.

WhatsApp groups
We have two WhatsApp groups. One is to notify events, including extra events such as meeting for a meal or a drink during the week which we don't normally put on the Meetup site. The other is for open discussion of whatever topics occur to people. If you would like to join either or both groups, please send a note of the phone number you would like to use to Richard Baron on: website.audible238@passmail.net. (This is an alias that can be discarded if it attracts spam, hence the odd words.)

THE TOPIC: Are you optimistic or pessimistic ?

This week's topic has been prepared by Duncan.

It's difficult to be optimistic about the future with so much uncertainty in the world.

Philosophers define the term differently to the way we tend to use it in everyday speech, from the Latin optimum, meaning "best", contrasted with pessimus, meaning "the worst".

Philosophical optimism is the metaphysical position that the actual world is the best of all possible worlds, famously defended by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, arguing that God created the most perfect balance of good. It differs from psychological optimism, focusing instead on the inherent structural, logical, or cosmic goodness of existence.

Leibniz argued that an all-powerful, all-good God must create the "best of all possible worlds." Any perceived flaws are necessary for the greater good of the whole, making it logically impossible for a "better" world to exist without contradiction. This view holds that even with inherent suffering, any alteration to the world would result in a worse outcome.

1. God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent;
2. God created the existing world;
3. God could have created a different world or none at all (i.e., there are other possible worlds);
4. Because God is omnipotent and omniscient, he knew which possible world was the best and was able to create it, and, because he is omnibenevolent, he chose to create that world;
5. Therefore, the existing world, the one that God created, is the best of all possible worlds.

For example, sin requires the choice to act sinfully and to remove sin we would need to give up free will, which we seem to value highly.

This idea was mocked by Voltaire in his satirical novel Candide as baseless optimism. Voltaire found it difficult to reconcile Leibniz's optimism with human suffering as demonstrated by the earthquake that devastated Lisbon in 1755 and the atrocities committed by the pre-revolutionary France against its people.

Philosophical pessimism is the view that life and existence are of negative value. It is often expressed as the claim that life is not worth living and that non-existence would, at least in many cases, be preferable to coming into or remaining in existence. Other formulations focus on claims that suffering and other harms have more impact or severity than pleasure and other goods; that the amount of bad in the world exceeds the quantity of good; that happiness is fleeting or unattainable; or that existence lacks inherent meaning or purpose.

Arthur Schopenhauer, for example, argued explicitly that we live in the worst of all possible worlds. In living creatures, the Will takes the form of the will to live: self-preservation or the survival instinct appearing as striving to satisfy desires. Since this will to life is humans' inner nature, they are doomed to be always dissatisfied, as one satisfied desire makes room for striving for yet another object of desire.

Paradoxically, the worst possible world may also be the best because it can get no worse.

Whose view do you agree with ? Despite all its flaws, is our world the best possible one ? On the whole, humans tend to overestimate the likelihood of positive events and underestimate that of negative events, a tendency known as Optimism bias.